Feedback Required EXP v1.9 - New Game Start: ASHON

OK, here's one, not sure if its a bug or not but if you reclaim the wrecked SV behind the scout and set the core to private it does not show on the map like a regular SV you built yourself. So the minimap for example is a blank and so is the terrain map.

 

So far hard start with food consumption set to low and managed to die only a couple times to make planetfall doing:
1. power off everything non essential lights/gravity/constructor/thruster
2. salvage the ship itself, harvest all the bits and bobs till all you have is a sealed hull and the essential parts
3, use f5 for your drone and salvage the outside of the ship, I stripped it down to just the command cabin after replacing the glass windows.
4. when going for the external crates, cook yourself on the thruster/generator
5. CV and SV can be moved very carefully with just one thruster, I was able to get the CV docked to the SV after repairs and then crawl 1ms to the space station
6. I've not jetpacked to the station and back but would be something to try on my next attempt, just figured it was too far.
7. starting off, if I don't get a MT, I make one.
8. not sure if I got enough exp to unlock thrusters before heading to the planet, don't think I did, will watch on my next attempt.

I got lucky and landed really darn close to the story point engine compartment this last attempt, thought for sure I was going to miss it and end up in the lava / way off course given my limited mobility towing the CV behind me.

 

Hey there! I'm digging the Ashon start, but a couple of the missions just never triggered... "TSO - Core Mission"... "Second mission about console (visitor)... " What triggers the TSO Core Mission?

Elloyn System.. was 78 AU away ...

 

Might need to stop for gas on the way.

 

I decided to salvage the containers and crash land on the moon, that part worked dug a hole about 10 drones showed up I made a base starter but cant seem to place it anywhere, I retrieved generator and stuff from the CV but they are laying on the floor about to disappear while I work out how to place a base starter it just stays red and says the is an object in the way but its and empty cavern. is it because of the drones? is this a flawed strategy?
getting stuff from the cargo boxes by the scout was easier I didn't even need hot drinks, except for the floating around stuff with the jet pack that took a bit of getting used to.

 

Maybe too deep in the dirt? Your hole might need to be bigger and the block can't be more than half submerged. Use the page-up, page-down commands to raise/lower the block til it's green.

I confirmed I can do it on Experimental 1.9 r II

 

If you are near the scout, which you must be to decommission the generator in the first place, then you should be able to link to the cargo onboard the scout and pick up the generator etc and store them in that cargo.

You will need wireless on the scout or base to transfer and place them via linked toolbar.

Placing the BA block is odd but the game is picky and inconsistent about what can go where. I usually place a BA block in a cavern with 2x2 blocks size of cleared room. If you are doing that and it wont place than it may be a bug. Check you are not near the map boundary seam or poles, check the N menu does not have connect to base active. If no reason visible then suggest submitting as a bug report with save DL link.

There used to be a problem with invisible surface items getting in the way of base blocks, which doesnt seem likely inside a player made cave but maybe it is something like that?

 

I was able to do it eventually, in a much smaller open space than I was originally trying, the scout was being picked to pieces by the drones and I had already removed everything from the scout cargo to the portable constructor and had removed the cargo box, next time will remove the core of the scout as soon as I crash. they seem to stop shooting at it once I salvaged the core. I lost quite a few things due to weight before I was able to get a base storage working, maybe next time I will just salvage and remake the things I need, I only have a T1 MT so don't recover much that way.
but I am now fighting off the drones and hopefully making some headway.

 

So, I've been playing in Ashon for a bit and I really love it. I didn't realise that the place you start in was actually a CV until I read here (I assumed it was just a base!) I got the nearby scout, repaired it a little & got to the trading station. I then was able to trade and buy some supplies (that rocket launcher went a long way!) Decided I wanted combat so went to the moon. Really fab survival experience, eeking out with a few bullets as I explored. Finally made an underground base and started building up. Got some grow plots with fibre so I could make ammo, and started exploring the world with occasional trips back to the space station for food and supplies.

I love the POIs - really well done to the author(s). Give a distinct feel, and I enjoyed working out how to take them down with limited resources - I like how many of them do have a vulnerability you can exploit. I liked and hated the trap one, lost my SV to it . For one of the first times I used a tunnel to get under the guns, and took it out - took ages trying to sneak around and not get blown up (though after the initial SV loss I didn't die which was cool. I then made a new CV purely out of my looting of the base!

Overall I loved the balance, and how much harder it was to get things. The loot felt a lot more balanced than the buckets of stuff you get in the normal starts. For the first time since I first played the game I actually had to make more advanced weapons using the weapons kits.

Some overall thoughts about things in my opinion I thought could influence other bits of the game:

I think this gets the loot / trading balance much better. As I said above usually after the first weapons I never have to build another weapon as you just get pulse rifles and other guns just falling out of, even non-epic, loot boxes. There was no broken sniper rifle economy (and the traders were much more limited anyway) which can rapidly mean you can get yourself easily set up. Just overall it points to a much better balanced progression (which i know you are revamping at some point anyway)

Though I haven't got there yet, I had already noticed this with the newer starts and several people have mentioned it above I think, that the Elyon system needs a bit of revamp after the starter moons to be a little more difficult. For example the Zirax drone base on Omicron now feels really undefended (unshielded is fine - I know a lot of people didn't enjoy that) and perhaps needs a beef up. Same for the Omicron based missions. You are just higher level and more resourced than when it used to be a started world. I wonder if this was beefed up a bit, it could offer an intermediate 6th start, with more risk than the moons but less than Ashon. This might please some of those players who find the four starter moons to easy now. Just a thought!

Great addition to the game, have had huge amounts of fun, thank you!

 

I agree. The loot rebalancing feels spot on - I complained about it for I and in II the N'tk golems dropped far fewer upgrades.

Now, though, since you must arrive on Omicron with a CV, I think missions should skip ahead to "Meet the GLaD" - not a lot reason to go into the Zirax - Talon backstory. Perhaps ... access to this start is an unlock that only comes from a successful playthrough of one of the normal 4 starts. No idea how you'd do that - Steam achievement check?

Bet you didn't think adding a new start would end up being so much work!

Oh, the "Four Moons around Crown" starts have already lost their replayability for me. This is SO welcome. I just got done saying how much work this is, but for me, the whole crash-land, make it to space experience is the best part of this game. It's what got me to Empyrion in the first place all those years ago now, and why I have 4K hours in single player.

Emphatically, more like this please.

If *someone* would update the *How to make a scenario* tutorials ... damn, I might even start cranking some more out for y'all.

 

Back after a few years, I really couldn't resist this update. Pretty glad I did a meaty playthrough, too!
I will share my thoughts about this game start in two sections: pure Feedback and my own experience with the playthrough.

Feedback
-The immediate beginning of this game start is pretty tense and very interesting. Love the "stranded in space" trope.
-It's difficult enough without being too frustrating (with some exceptions.)
-Lots of starting choices in how to proceed, which is GREAT.
-The storyline needs a lot more meat on its bones and some proofreading too.
-The loot balance is alright, but the distribution makes little sense (huge crates with 2 optical cables and tiny amount of ammunition.)
-The POIs are very interesting and some pack nasty surprises (I'm looking at you, Old Storage Thingy!)
-Enemy distribution and species make no sense. Human shopkeepers in Zirax bases alongside Talon warriors and human elite guards?
-Enemy spawn is out of whack. I understand some of it is warranted due to this being a hard start, but two elite guards falling from a roof and one-shotting a medium armor with two armor boosts? It makes it really impractical to loot POIs without huge amount of, well, cheese.
-There are no drone attacks on the moon, which is probably not intended (I would assume?)
-It is *very* time intensive to get out of the system without using some cheese.
-The moment you're out of Ashon, the game goes back to being almost trivial.

The Playthrough (with some feedback, too!)
Took a look around, turned off everything that consumed energy and began dismantling and salvaging parts of the CV, the SV and the crates lying around. I built a SV with three thrusters, enough to get me to the trading station. Took all the free stuff there and used their constructor to make three more thrusters - the main boon I got from the crates was a rocket launcher which I sold, netting me enough credits to buy all I needed for a stable SV. (The constant back and forth with a suit and no means of getting an EVA boost meant a lot of close calls with hypothermia, which was rather annoying.)
I got to the moon and began exploring and looting what I could. Built an underground base to stay safe from drones, the golem-y things were good sport when I built a sniper rifle, the infected gave me a decent number of frights.
(Even more so than in other starts, this one would GREATLY benefit by better enemy AI and smoother movements and pathing.)
After some daring probing attacks (I had VERY limited missiles for the SV) I thought: "Oh, I will get that Old Storage Thingy in the middle of two turreted POIs, I'm sure it will be okay." Then my SV got shot up of the sky, but thankfully I managed to dig a hole, salvage all the cargo and put it in a survival constructor. Used my bike to agonizingly slowly go back to base and build another SV.
(Hard POIs and surprises are GREAT, but there's a staggeringly low amount of troops on the ground, which means less XP and loot outside of containers, which are also pretty stingy.)
Reached the point when I could easily core the supply stations in orbit, that gave me all that I needed to build a decent starter CV. Went to the Depleted Pentaxid Mine and was ambushed by the local warlord. My CV only had a single turret and I was out of rockets, so I retreated and jumped out.
(Boss-like fight idea is very cool, but at that point in the playthrough it seemed like it was more about flavor than loot.)

Conclusions!
It is a very cool idea that needs more mini-missions, more cool lore snippets and some rebalancing of the loot tables. Also some more AI activity, such as random attacks, raids and things that would generally keep the players interested and on their toes.

 

Yep, sorry! I thought, given how dangerous the place is, I would have been overwhelmed by base attacks. Turns out the golem guys were much more dangerous than drones, especially on Hard!

 

I was sitting on the generator warming up, and I thought while I am waiting I will use my drone to loot ASPCB4 (or similar) its only 34 meters away, I salvaged it with my survivor tool. and it did not drop any loot, turns out that's the one with the 10 promethium in it, which meant I was unable to continue because without fuel for the multi tool there really isn't anything more you can do, as for instance it is impossible to retrieve the thruster and change its orientation to move the CV.

 

Fill up your suit inventory and Skydive!